TIMBER CONSTRUCTION AND CLIMATE PROTECTION
- Creating living space and improving climate protection performance
"Resource-conserving construction with timber can not only create more living space, but also increase climate protection performance.” Peter Aicher, President of Timber Construction Europe, explains how this can be achieved.
Further improving cascade use
From an ecological and climate policy perspective, the material recycling of timber stocks should be preferred to thermal recycling. “The potential of the material use of wood has not yet been fully exploited,” Peter Aicher, President of Timber Construction Europe, is convinced. “The framework conditions for cascading use must be further improved in order to maintain or increase the CO2 storage effects and thus the climate protection effect.”
More timber buildings through resource-conserving construction
When building with wood, it is essential that the regional wood supply is handled responsibly and used in a resource-efficient manner. When planning a timber building, the right timber construction should be found that takes into account both its use and consumption. This means that buildings can be built in a resource-efficient manner and all the more wooden houses can be built.
Conserving resources and circular construction are exciting tasks and can be implemented particularly well in timber construction.
- Promoting regional value chains in timber construction
"The regional value chains in timber construction must be promoted in order to strengthen the small and medium-sized economic structures in the European regions," emphasises Jean Schumacher, Vice President Timber Construction Europe.
Promotion of sustainable local supply networks
A direct and regional supply of raw materials is of great importance for an efficient contribution to climate protection. A stringent value chain from the forest via the sawmills to the wood processing companies with short supply chains is highly ecological.
This achieves the best possible climate protection effect, as long transport routes and thus CO2 emissions are avoided. It also strengthens the small and medium-sized economic structures in the European regions.
This includes the development of efficient co-operation structures and the formation and promotion of cooperatives. In this way, stable and fair prices and reliable availability along the value chain could be achieved.
- Consider the carbon footprint of supply routes and manufacturing processes
"In life cycle assessments, grey energy must be taken into account in order to consider and analyse the environmental impact of different building materials in a balanced and fair way," demands Sigfried Fritz, Vice President Timber Construction Europe.
The construction sector is responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Against the backdrop of climate policy challenges, global warming must be kept well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
To achieve this, it is necessary to consistently include and price the supply routes and manufacturing processes of building materials with regard to their carbon footprint in the assessment under public law. ‘Grey energy’ must no longer be disregarded in the assessment of buildings and building materials.
Within the framework of the Construction Products Regulation, the ‘sustainable use of natural resources’ must be mandated and systematically implemented for all EU Member States as an essential basic requirement for construction works BWR 7.
- Sustainable forest management creates the basis for a wide range of forest tasks
"‘Resource-efficient timber utilisation is geared towards the needs of the domestic timber industry as well as the social requirements of nature conservation", emphasises Konrad Blaas, Vice President Timber Construction Europe.
The forest fulfils many functions. It is a recreational area, an important climate protector, a home for animals and plants and an important supplier of raw materials. Sustainable forest management ensures that the forest guarantees these diverse ecological, social and economic services in the long term. It also secures the long-term supply of wood as a raw material.
Building with wood increases the construction industry's climate protection performance: European forests should continue to be used sustainably for forestry in the future and supply the environmentally friendly building material wood. Building with wood increases the climate protection potential of the construction industry. Forests and timber construction can thus work together as carbon reservoirs to significantly increase climate protection performance.
Resource-efficient timber utilisation must be geared towards the long-term needs of the domestic timber industry as well as the social requirements of nature conservation. Legal requirements and regulations for sustainable forestry must be implemented. The TCE associations are committed to the principle of biodiversity, but it is also necessary for us to have the wood required for timber construction available affordably and in sufficient quantities, otherwise we will not be able to utilise our opportunities as a climate protection trade in timber construction.
- Securing the carbon storage potential of wood
"The sustainable forestry and timber industry secures the carbon storage potential of wood - we talk about the three S's,’ explains Hansjörg Steiner, Vice President Timber Construction Europe.
When it comes to the performance of wood, we talk about the three S's. The first S stands for sequestration (CO2 absorption). The longer a tree grows, the more CO2 it removes from the atmosphere. The second S stands for storage. The felled tree stores the CO2 until the wood is burnt. The third S stands for substitution. A product made from wood requires much less energy to manufacture than products made from concrete, glass or steel, for example.
The topic of the circular economy concerns everyone, including timber construction. The aim must be cascade utilisation. For us timber builders, this means not burning the wood after dismantling, but using it again in the next project. This extends the performance of the wood in the second S, the stored CO2. So when planning and building with wood, we need to keep an eye on what an optimal construction looks like so that it can be easily dismantled again. This is the only way to ensure that this natural building material does not prematurely disappear from the cycle as energy wood.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)